Dungeon Runner

Stepping Up, Chapter 85

Tibs ran through the crowd, forcing his problems out of his mind.

Most of the town was here, perusing the booths the caravan merchant had set up. The chaos made practicing his pickpocket easier and avoiding the guards fun. At least that was what he told himself after having had to break up two altercations between Runners and Harry's guards already.

The merchants provided most of the ones for the bazaar, but the town still needed to have a presence. If it meant Harry's or Tibs's people, that hadn't been established, and Tibs didn't want to have to deal with it at this moment.

This was supposed to be the time for his game, not dealing with problems. The first day the booths were up after the caravan's arrival. Run among the people, pick the pockets, and used those coins to try food and drinks from places he'd never heard of.

Enjoy candies.

This time, unlike the previous ones, the bazaar had been set up in the center of the town, around the transportation platform, filling the space the fire—his fire—had cleared. He did his best not to let the memory dampen his enjoyment.

The caravan merchants had been lucky, in a way. They had left a few days before Sto closed his door, and this was their first time back since. They'd missed Sebastian and the siege. Now, they were enjoying more visitors since the Attendants didn't charge as much to come to Kragle Rock while the bazaar was running. It had to be an arrangement with the caravan, but it benefited the town as a whole since the taverns filled up with customers. Even the Inn benefited, although it was further into the town. Tibs and his team would eat in the kitchen, since there would be too many customers for Kroseph to keep their table unoccupied.

It probably meant the bazaar would end early, since they hadn't known of the new location and more visitors meant running out of goods sooner.

Tibs saw Cross and changed direction before she noticed him. She was a guard at the moment, not his friend. She wouldn't see him pick pockets—she wasn't that good. But after he returned the last puzzle by slipping it into her carry pouch without her noticing, she'd find him at some point, loom over him and demand he hand over what he'd taken. She wouldn't believe him when he said he hadn't taken anything.

The cube she'd handed him had been a fun challenge. Even once he understood it was about lining the notches so the other parts would slip into place, figuring the right order to place and insert them had been difficult. Once he'd succeeded, the second time doing it was simpler only because he knew to identify and keep track of the wooden pieces. There was no pattern to memorize, and if one piece went missing, it was impossible to assemble the cube.

He bought enough different candies from the merchant to fill his pouch, then set about locating Carina. He found her at the third booth selling books, in an excited discussion with the merchant. He slipped a few of the candies into her pouch and moved on to finding another of his friends.

Mez was with his girl and seemed happy. Tibs slipped him more candies because he could see it was a lie. Then, having to think it over, slipped one into his girl's pouch.

Khumdar vanished nearly as soon as Tibs saw him, taking a step into a shadow, and it swallowed him completely. The woman the cleric had been talking with was surprised by the action, then looked around furtively. He considered following her as she walked away, to find out what his friend was up to, but decided to let him have his privacy.

Tibs let Jackal see him approach, and the fighter eyed him suspiciously. He no longer walked with a limp, and it had only taken Tibs eight tries to heal his leg correctly. He hadn't minded the hard work it required, and he thought he now knew why he had so much trouble when he simply copied what Carina did.